Great book! Helpful. It really points out that most of the brands we eat are GMO foods. But you know, it seems that all the non-GMO foods aren't sold in stores--such as Walmart. In fact, I walked up and down the grocery aisle at Wal-Mart, and everything was GMO. Everything. It is as if WalMart has made a deal with someone to only sell GMO food to the masses. Kind of creeped me out, actually.

In another post on this forum, someone asked about high fructose corn syrup. It's bad. Real bad. Corn in this country is getting polluted so badly with genetic modifications that harm us. A study by the International Journal of Biological Sciences has shown that GMO corn is leading to organ failure in mammals: http://www.biolsci.org/v05p0706.htm#headingA11 So, if your guts start hurting during the middle of the day after eating that bag of Doritos and drinking that Pepsi, blame the corn in the chips, and the corn syrup in the drink! (A dumbed-down summary of the study is on Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/12/monsantos-gmo-corn-linked_n_420365.html

It's incredible how badly Monsanto is polluting the corn strains in the Americas.

Anyhow, I figured the best first step in switching my diet from these poisonous crops is to get off the Great Value and the traditional American brands, starting with getting off cooking oil. Wesson, Crisco, Great Value--all of em are GMO oils from GMO corn. So, I switched to 100% peanut oil. The brand I'm using is Lou Ann oil, so hopefully my guts will start feelin' better in the months to come.

These two switches alone, I believe, are quite substantial if I can maintain it.

But folks, just take a look at this booklet, and see for yourself....http://truefoodnow.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/web_new-ge-booklet.pdf...Look at all the brands that are not GMO. See how obscure they are? Where am I supposed to buy these products? Has anyone heard of these products before? Annie's Natural? Amy's Kitchen? ShariAnn's Organics? I'll bet these brands are so expensive. The peanut oil switch in and of itself is 3 times more costly than the usual cooking oil we buy!

But folks, just take a look at this booklet, and see for yourself....http://truefoodnow.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/web_new-ge-booklet.pdf...Look at all the brands that are not GMO. See how obscure they are? Where am I supposed to buy these products? Has anyone heard of these products before? Annie's Natural? Amy's Kitchen? ShariAnn's Organics? I'll bet these brands are so expensive. The peanut oil switch in and of itself is 3 times more costly than the usual cooking oil we buy!

Do you Fisheaters ever see these non-GMO brands from the booklet?

I have heard of these brands (and occasionally bought them) but I shop at specialty stores for them. As you guessed, they are more expensive. People who have time can save money by growing some of their own food and cooking from scratch, then use the savings to buy high quality raw ingredients. It is a big adjustment to change one's cooking and eating habits. I've heard it is better to change gradually, introducing one thing at a time like you are wilh cooking oil. People who try to do everything at once tend to be overwhelmed and give up.

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ADORABLE Saviour, consider my many wants, and grant me those graces which Thou knowest I stand in need of to do Thy will in all things.

It's true that most of the GMOs are in processed foods, especially anything containing the big three of corn, soybeans, or wheat. (And humans should never eat soy unless it's fermented. Really, nothing should.) But there are plenty of other GMO fruits and vegetables on the market, and they're always developing more. Growing your own, or being tight with someone who does, are really the only practical options for now. Even the EU, which used to oppose GMOs as a protectionist measure, seems to be giving in. (Olive oil may still be non-GMO, but there have been trials, so don't count on that forever.) Maybe someday there will be enough demand for and production of non-GMO foods to bring the price down (assuming the entire seed supply doesn't get tainted), but that's not the case now, so grow your own. And if anyone objects that people in big cities like New York don't have room to grow their own food, I'll say what Joel Salatin says: that's an argument against people living in such cities, not against being minimally self-sufficient.

I'm not convinced yet that GMOs in general are directly harmful in a biological sense. But there are other reasons to avoid them. As I said in another thread, the contracts that come with GMO seed make the farmer a subcontractor of the chemical/seed companies, rather than the independent businessman he used to be. Over the last century, starting with the small stuff like fish and chicken and moving to the larger animals like pork and beef, 'Big Ag' has gradually consolidated production under fewer and fewer owners, making it harder for independent farmers to stay in business. My dad (a small farmer) once wondered how they would get the same kind of top-down control over grain production, since it's so much larger and more spread out. GMOs were the answer.

Also, when they tinker with the genes of, say, a potato, since 75% of potatoes go to livestock feed or starch production, they're focused on a variety of things:

Making it immune to useful herbicides.Increased starch production.Drought/wet/blight/heat/cold resistance.Transport tolerance and storage ability.

If they're thinking at all about things like flavor or vitamin/mineral content, they're way down on the list. In other words, they're focused on what will increase profit for the company that harvests a zillion bushels a year and ships it all to a big processor, not the backyard gardener or the truck farmer who raises 50 bushels to sell to individuals. If you want your food to taste good and be healthy, the GMO folks aren't necessarily working against you, but they're not working for you either. This was already an issue before GMOs, when they used hybridization to select for industrially-useful traits over others, but GMOs accelerate the process.

The PLU code mentioned on fruits help you identify if the fruit was genetically modified, organically grown or produced with chemical fertilizers, fungicides, or herbicides. For fruits grown with chemicals, the PLU code on the sticker consists of four numbers.

Organically grown fruit has a five-numeral PLU prefaced by the number 9. Genetically engineered fruit has a five-numeral PLU prefaced by the number 8.

For example, a conventionally grown banana would be: 4011. An organic banana would be: 94011. A genetically engineered banana would be: 84011.

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But folks, just take a look at this booklet, and see for yourself....http://truefoodnow.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/web_new-ge-booklet.pdf...Look at all the brands that are not GMO. See how obscure they are? Where am I supposed to buy these products? Has anyone heard of these products before? Annie's Natural? Amy's Kitchen? ShariAnn's Organics? I'll bet these brands are so expensive. The peanut oil switch in and of itself is 3 times more costly than the usual cooking oil we buy!

Do you Fisheaters ever see these non-GMO brands from the booklet?

They sell these brands in some natural food sections of supermarkets; it just depends upon where you live. Target stocks them, for sure. Yes, they are usually slightly more expensive, but that's because they're processed. There are more brands which don't use GMO, and they're cheaper. Here's info from Whole Foods Market, an establishment with which I have a really conflicted love/hate relationship:

It is possible to eat more cheaply on non-GMO food, but it requires planning. You can purchase organic, grass-fed beef online in very large quantities, and the price can be comparable to regular grocery stores. You may have to buy a whole cow, which will last your family for quite some time but you have to have a good chest freezer to put it in. They normally arrive already cut into steaks, roasts, and some portion is ground, usually you can specify how much you want ground.

If you stick to non-processed foods in the organics section, they really aren't very expensive, and the prices can be comparable to conventional processed foods. For example, if you buy organic eggs, you end up paying much less per serving than you would if you had purchased a package of jimmy deans ready-made frozen omelets. Same thing with produce, if you buy a head of organic romaine, cut it and wash it yourself, it's going to be way cheaper per serving than the convenience bags of conventional lettuce.

You can also cook using organic staple foods for much cheaper than already prepared convenience foods. Buy a bag of organic dried beans, a bag of organic rice, cook a week's worth and seperate into daily portions, freezing some. This can save you from having to go through the long process of cooking beans from their dry state all the time. You can splurge on some organic salsa, eat your beans and rice with the salsa and some organic eggs and you have a very cheap, healthy, completely organic meal.

Things that get really expensive when it comes to groceries, besides processed foods, are drinks. I mostly just stick to water, except for some occasional coffee or tea. Also, to get enough calcium, I buy a high-quality liquid calcium supplement and mix it with my water every now and then. It may seem expensive, but when you consider the servings it ends up being much cheaper than milk and the calcium in some supplements is easier to absorb anyways.

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Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.– Buddha

Note: According to this precept, I find that Buddhism is NOT true. I have tested and judged many things, and the only Truth I have found is in God's One True Church: The Catholic Church.

Dear Lord, I know I can live by Your Holy Will every moment of my life, because You have given me faith that Your Grace will enable me to.

Yes, planning makes a big difference. Also, the closer you can get to the source, the lower the price and the better the quality. Farmers are getting about $1/gallon for milk right now, so if you buy it in the store, most of the price goes the processor for destroying most of the good stuff in it and putting it in a jug. Lots of people around here sell brown eggs for $1-1.50/dozen (which doesn't even pay for the inputs, but they like having chickens). My folks sell outdoor-raised pork and beef that costs less than $2/pound after processing. If you've got room for a garden -- even a south-facing windowsill -- a few dollars worth of seed can turn into hundreds of dollars worth of produce at store prices.